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City Awake: Words of Wisdom Dinner ft. Jim Canales, Barr Foundation

February 28, 2019 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce

Event Details

  • In our next Words of Wisdom Dinner, Jim joins us to talk about his career moves from coast to coast, how the Barr Foundation has and is evolving, and the ways young professionals can become engaged in making Boston the best it can be.

Tickets

  • Members & Non-Members:$35
  • RSVP by Thursday, February 28
  • City Awake programs are open to young professionals between the ages of 21 – 39.
  • This event is limited to 35 young professionals.
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In our next Words of Wisdom Dinner, Jim joins us to talk about his career moves from coast to coast, how the Barr Foundation has and is evolving, and the ways young professionals can become engaged in making Boston the best it can be.

Jim Canales has a leadership journey that ranges from teaching high school English in San Francisco to managing over $1.8 billion in assets for one of Boston’s most influential philanthropic organizations. As President and Trustee of the Barr Foundation, Jim leads a team of changemakers who work to make our city a better place for all. How do they do it? By supporting arts & creativity and education, and by fostering ideas that aim to solve persistent issues like inequality and climate change, to name just a few of their focus areas.

When Mayor Walsh announced the City’s Resilient Boston Harbor plan at his Boston Chamber address last October, Barr stepped up to the challenge of preparing Boston for rising tides. The Foundation is using their resources to build a team dedicated to specifically to waterfront initiatives. In our next Words of Wisdom Dinner, Jim joins us to talk about his career moves from coast to coast, how the Barr Foundation has and is evolving, and the ways young professionals can become engaged in making Boston the best it can be.

What are our Words of Wisdom Dinners?

Words of Wisdom Dinners are a complement to our Lunches on Leadership. In this series, a very senior leader joins a small group of roughly 35 people for a conversation about incredible milestones we’ve observed in their career. We pick their brain on highs and lows, and leave plenty of time for questions.

Ali Brainard (Nigro)

Senior Program Manager

[email protected]
617-557-7329

FEATURING

Jim Canales

President and Trustee, Barr Foundation Featured Speaker

Jim Canales was appointed president and trustee of the Barr Foundation in May 2014. Prior to joining Barr, he spent two decades in a variety of roles at The James…Read more
Jim Canales was appointed president and trustee of the Barr Foundation in May 2014. Prior to joining Barr, he spent two decades in a variety of roles at The James Irvine Foundation in California, including president and chief executive officer from 2003 through 2014. Before working in philanthropy, Jim was a high school English teacher in San Francisco after earning a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in education from Stanford University. He maintains a broad range of volunteer engagements; he currently serves as a trustee of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Kaiser Family Foundation, and as a member of the Advisory Board for the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative. In 2015–2016, he co-chaired the Leadership Council of Boston Creates, the City’s cultural planning process. Jim’s prior board involvement includes service as a Stanford University trustee from 2006 through 2015. He has served as chair of the boards of the College Futures Foundation, KQED Public Broadcasting, the Stanford Alumni Association, and Larkin Street Youth Services, and as vice chair of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He is also a co-founder and former board chair of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. Jim’s writing on a range of topics has appeared in The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and The Huffington Post, among other outlets. 

Matthew Ciborowski

Senior Planner, Arup Moderator

Matthew Ciborowski is a Senior Planner in Arup’s Boston office with 10 years of experience in the public and private sectors. His work to date has focused on the…Read more
Matthew Ciborowski is a Senior Planner in Arup’s Boston office with 10 years of experience in the public and private sectors. His work to date has focused on the Boston area through positions with the state department of transportation (MassDOT) and transit authority (MBTA), and he has worked across the United States in previous roles. Matthew’s experience includes service planning, alternatives analysis, economic development, environmental review, and the integration of engineering services. He has extensive project management experience, having managed multi-million-dollar planning studies and P3 efforts, most of which are now in the implementation phase. Having advised a number of MassDOT Secretaries and MBTA General Managers as well as elected officials in Massachusetts, Matthew is well positioned to understand the interface between technical planning and political reality. His policy work for both MassDOT and the MBTA has progressed into investment strategy for both agencies. As the leader of Arup’s Boston Planning practice, Matthew delivers projects for public and private sector clients that shape the future of our cities. His key areas of focus include fare and pricing policy, passenger facility design, transit micro-investments, the integration of emerging technologies into existing networks, the interface between planning and engineering, bridging the gap between government regimes, and P3 financing strategy.

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